In recent years, increasingly sophisticated telematics systems have been developed to detect an emergency condition or activation, and in response, initiate a call to a call center. Systems have been developed for monitoring fixed customer premises locations or personnel at specific site as well as for vehicle applications. For motor vehicle applications, for example, an on-board system monitors one or more sensors to determine when a crash or other emergency has occurred. Upon detecting an emergency condition, such as a crash, the on-board system activates a cellular transceiver to initiate a cellular telephone call to a call center of the telematics service provider (TSP). Upon connection to the call center, the system may communicate certain data, such as location determined by global positioning satellite (GPS) processing, identification data and crash related data. After the data transmission, the call is converted to a voice call in which a TSP representative at the call center can attempt voice communication with an occupant of the vehicle. The TSP also offers mechanisms for the representative to contact emergency service personnel in the area, to respond appropriately to the incident.
For mobile applications in vehicles, the primary communication resource is a cellular transceiver for communications via a public mobile wireless communication network, typically operated by a mobile service provider or carrier. Even some fixed location installations may utilize communications through a mobile service provider's network because the service is less likely to be interrupted by events that might otherwise damage landline network facilities at the location.
Typically, the telematics customer subscribes to the telematics service from a telematics service provider TSP. The TSP in turn contracts with a wireless service provider, so that the customer's telematics unit at the location or in the vehicle is active for wireless communication via the mobile network. With respect to the communication service through the network, the TSP is essentially a reseller of the carrier's communication service. The customer's service will be active with respect to the TSP and its systems. However, the customer's telematics unit also must also be active with respect to the carrier's wireless communication network and associated equipment in essentially the same way as a mobile station of a regular subscriber to the carrier's services.
From time to time some telematics units will become dormant with respect to the service offered by the TSP, e.g. because the customer opts to terminate subscription and/or does not pay the bills for the telematics service. However, at a later time, the customer may opt to resume service. In the case of an automobile, a first owner may terminate the telematics service, but after a sale, a second owner may want to subscribe to the service and thus need to reactivate the telematics unit in the automobile. Also, new telematics units may be initially inactive, at least with respect to the network.
Previously, to activate an inactive telematics device, the vehicle manufacturer had to take an active role in the process utilizing a proprietary over-the-air activation application. Often times, reactivation would require the user to provide vehicle information such as the vehicle identification number (VIN) so that it could be correlated with the telematics control unit (TCU); and then, the TCU could be re-activated on the billing and network systems through the automobile manufacturer. Another method of activating or reactivating the device would be to bring the vehicle to a service center and gain physical access to the TCU via a handheld device, which would force the device to activate on the network. Using this method the TCU would have a VIN associated with it.
A need exists for a better technique for activating a telematics unit particularly one that is convenient for the user and/or does not require involvement of the manufacturer.